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Shinobu
Shinobu (シノブ) is a fictional character in the 2007 video game No More Heroes, ''the 2010 sequel ''No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, ''and the 2019 video game [[Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes|''Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes]]. She is an 18-year-old assassin, the youngest confirmed ranked member of the United Assassins Association, and a high school student at the local Santa Destroy High School. Her nationality is unknown, although she is presumably American. She is ranked eighth in the UAA. Shinobu bears a grudge against Travis Touchdown because she believes he murdered her father, though in truth Travis had idolized Shinobu's father so much so that he watched all of Jacobs' tapes until they wore out, but had never actually met him in person. It is likely that Travis' twin brother Henry was the one who killed Shinobu's father, as it isn't until Travis activates his beam katana that Shinobu's overall tolerance of him harshens, proclaiming she will finally avenge her father, as Henry wields a beam katana similar to Travis'. She goes to great lengths to hide her profession as an assassin from her fellow classmates, going so far as to kill a small group of students who overheard Travis challenging her to a ranking battle. Shinobu specializes in using her katana, even throwing Travis off guard by using her signature move, Sonic Sword. Once half of her health is lost, she periodically attempts a move which kills Travis instantly if he gets too close. After she is defeated, her right forearm was severed by Travis' blade, Travis chooses to spare her life despite her requests to him to kill her and challenges her to kill him in the future. It is likely that Travis truly could not kill her because of his discomfort in killing a woman, as revealed with his victory against Holly Summers. Shinobu later appears to save Travis from being killed by Jeane. In No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, she returns as a playable character for two levels. She first appears right before the assassin battle royale in the UAA office, and her presence is questioned by Travis. Sylvia responds with saying that it was nobody. She then reappears after Travis defeats Dr. Letz Shake, and has been in Asia, won a championship belt, and even refers to Travis as master. Afterwards, Sylvia lets Shinobu take over for Travis in the next two ranks where she kills Million Gunman, and the newly resurrected Destroyman, now known as New Destroyman. Unlike Travis, Shinobu can jump, use a long range attack, and perform an air attack. However, after performing a combo she stops and taunts. After defeating New Destroyman, she tries to make advances on Travis, but Travis turns her down as he does not want to be "like the pervy teacher in a porn". A fake head of her appears in the final battle where Jasper Batt, Jr. tricks Travis into thinking she, Henry, and Sylvia are dead. In Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, Shinobu tracks Travis to his trailer in order to have a duel with him, only to be interrupted by Bad Dog, killing the mood. She then constantly visited Travis. In one of those visits, Henry shows up with two members of the 'Order of the Emerald Night', having stalked Shinobu to the location of his trailer. Travis, not wanting to cause a ruckus on his trailer, suggests another place to fight Henry's goons, Shinobu suggests to go to her dojo. She explains that she started teaching martial arts and the ways of Bushido to kids to lead them to a righteous life and that she maintains the dojo with money from assassination jobs. Travis shows concern and asks her to never let kids know about her jobs. Shinobu is voiced by Kimberly Brooks. In the Trading Card Game There are several Shinobu trading cards in the Design Materials set. These include "Shinobu" Design, "Shinobu" Expressions and Shinobu. Trivia *Shinobu originally had two boss fights in No More Heroes, one occurring later in the rankings. However, it was subsequently removed. However, the theme of her second battle, Samurai Summer, was used for Holly Summers' second battle theme and is still present on the soundtrack. *Shinobu bears quite a few similarities to Afro, the main character of the anime Afro Samurai. Both wield katanas, have afros, and are seeking revenge on a person who killed their father. It is quite possible that Shinobu's design and background were both inspired by him. *Shinobu's outfit in No More Heroes is based on the Japanese "kogal" style. In No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, her outfit is based on the Gothic Lolita style. *Before the events of No More Heroes 2,'' Shinobu had a prosthetic arm. *In [[No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle|''No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle]], Shinobu has a glove over her right hand. That is the same hand Travis cut off during their ranking battle in ''No More Heroes''. *She constantly uses the word "Moe" in different events throughout gameplay, I.E. picking up health/electricity, but has no idea what she is saying herself *One of her saving quotes in No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle ''is ''"What does "moe" mean?" *When saving she does not use the bathroom like Travis but instead takes a shower. Oddly enough, always in the same place. *In No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise her alternate costume looks like a cheerleader outfit. Apparently, she has a bellybutton piercing. *Shinobu's name is a pun on the word shinobi which means "to steal away". It also means ninja. However "Shinobu" can as a given name mean "endure" or "recall". This depends on how it is written in kanji. *It's worth noting that in the Afro Samurai Resurrection movie a girl looking almost identical to her appears as a background character. *In No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, her weapon is named "Jacob's Ladder." This is possibly a reference to the film of the same name. * Shinobu appears to be a fan of Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly, much like Travis. This is evident due to the key chains attached to the scabbard of her katana. * Despite popular belief, Shinobu's "Instant Kill" in the first game actually isn't an instant KO at all. On Sweet mode it barely does half of the normal "Red Heart" of Travis' health (about 35%? of Travis' Health) while on Bitter, it inflicts roughly 70% of Travis' health, though she usually uses this technique when the player had likely taken a lot of damage already, which led most to believe it was an Instant Kill. Category:Main Characters Category:Females Category:Assassins Category:NMH Characters Category:NMH2 Characters Category:TSA Characters Category:TSB Characters Category:United Assassins Association Category:Boss Characters Category:Humans